The Return
by MissDavenport
Summary: 25 years after Breaking Dawn...The Cullen Clan return to Forks. Renee hasn't heard from her daughter in years, but now that she os on her deathbed... Full summary inside...please give it a chance, i'm not good at symmaries Includes smut, love, family etc!
1. Chapter 1

_(My first Twilight Fanfic so please review!)_

_It's set a few decades after breaking dawn. Bella has given up on talking to her mother, realising that it was too difficult. But thirty years down the line, Renee is an old lady and is on her death bed...Bella and the Cullens return._

Isabella Sawn was someone people remembered. She was the beautiful, smart and loving person who moved to little old Forks at the age of seventeen, met the stunningly handsome rich guy, got together with him and after they both fell in love, graduated with great grades, got accepted to the same great collage and accepted their scholarships, they, out of nowhere, with no shocking scandal like an unexpected pregnancy, got married at the age of eighteen. Not only was this a lovely romantic story about two people that were just meant to be, it progressed to be a rather mysterious one as, after departing for their honeymoon on the night of their perfect white wedding, no one in Forks ever saw them again.

But, Mike Newton would have remembered her without the story. He had always been a fan of Bella, from the moment he saw her, he'd liked her. But he'd never truly had a chance, no one had, not with Cullen in the picture. But as he waved at them as they disappeared into the ribbon covered flashy car, he had never dreamed that he'd never see them again. Even if they didn't see each other before they went to college, they had to visit, right? Her father still lived there for god's sakes!

He never really knew what happened to them, he only knew that they were "doing fine" as was always the response he got when he asked Charlie. He never spoke too much about it.

Mike would never forget the time he went to report a robbery that time a man had broken into his car and stolen Jessica's bag, and he'd seen Renee shouting at Charlie in his office. He could hear her from where he listened outside.

"How can you be so calm! It's been seven months! Bella would never do that unless she had a reason!"

It had always puzzled Mike but all he ever got form Charlie was the normal "they're doing great, thanks mike."

But the incident that really shook Mike up happened 25 years after he last saw Bella. He was 43 years old, and – as was what Jessica called 'necessary' now due to the weight he was gaining with age – he was jogging around forks. He ended up in the woods outside Charlie Swan's house. As the trees thinned, the house came into view as did the people standing outside.

Charlie was there, a very grave expression on his heavily lined face. Standing next to him was a young woman, about average height.

Mike's heart began to race, Bella, she was here! She was actually here, he stepped forward and as he did, the girl flicked her red hair back, revealing more of her face. She wasn't Bella. She looked about seventeen and, though she had Bella's beautiful brown eyes, she had his hair. How had he missed that? She had his features too. She was absolutely stunning.

"Mum is devastated. We're staying at the old house, she didn't want to risk coming here, she's not feeling herself and..."

The girl stopped as she heard the twigs crackling under Mike's feet as he stepped back.

No, the girl wasn't Bella. She was Bella's daughter.


	2. Chapter 2

_Right...here goes the 2nd chapter. Please R&R. Xxxxxxx_

**1 week earlier...**

Living amidst the mountains and rivers was bliss. But of course, Alice had to drag Bella out of the haven and plonk her right in the middle of a crowded shopping mall on her lovely Saturday afternoon. She'd spent all day dragging her through shop after shop until now, here they were, driving home in Bella's flashy Bugatti Veyron that was filled with shopping bags and Bella was having trouble driving in the way too skinny jeans and the way too high heels. Still, they didn't stop her from speeding off toward the familiar mountains that were visible in the distance.

"Sheesh, insultingly exited for this trip to end hugh?" Alice grumbled. Bella giggled. Nearly there.

As the neared the turnoff toward their home, Bella's face broke into a huge grin. Her lullaby was being played. She was being welcomed home. As the trees thinned and the houses came into view she saw that only one house of the four had the lights on, it was the biggest house, Esme and Carlisle's house. It had come to be like the common place to be during the day for them. She realised that her lullaby had morphed into a different song and saw the reason why standing in the doorway. Edward had come to the door and so it must have been Renesmee playing.

Jasper was standing behind Edward and they were both smiling at the girls as they got out of the car.

"Good trip?" Jasper asked as he enveloped Alice in a hug.

"The best" Alice sang as they both disappeared inside.

"Hell." Bella clarified when she and Edward were alone on the porch. Edward chuckled before placing a kiss on her lips.

They too went into the house where, as Bella had predicted, her seventeen year old looking daughter was playing the piano. She turned around when she heard the door and gave her mother a dazzling smile before changing the song subtly to be one of Bella's favourites.

They went to sit down with the others on the sofa. Emmet was engrossed in a game that was showing on the wall sized 3D television while Rose read her magazine. Esme and Carlisle were sitting talking to Jasper who had his arms around... a wide eyed, still as a statue Alice.

This was no big thing. To humans Alice must seem like the most committed day dreamer ever. Bella no longer thought anything of it. Things were well. For a long time now no one had been plotting against them, which is why it surprised her when Edward had disappeared from Bella's side to crouch by his sister, gripping her arm while the horrified look on his face got more and more intense.

Bella waited. This was not a completely strange occurrence. But it was very worrying because it had been a long time since anyone that could sense or see the visions reacted with such horror.

Edward was suddenly at her side, holding her by the upper arms. Something was wrong.

"Edward?" She said in a shaky voice.

"It's your mother." He said, pain over Bella lining his voice and expression.

Bella pushed at her shield. _What is happening to my mother Edward?"_

"She's dying Bella. She's going to die."

_When?_ Bella didn't trust her voice.

"Three days."

Three minutes later, the flight was booked, the bags were packed and Bella and Edward were pulling away from the drive way and skidding down the drive.

They were heading for sunny Jacksonville. Bella had swapped her light cardigan for one of Edward's big black hoodies and shoved a pair of sunglasses into the pocket, in an attempt to hide her skin from the sun once they got there.

"Bella..." Edward began.

"There's nothing you can say Edward." She said. She put her hand in his and he squeezed it reassuringly. "Just be with me through this and you'll do fine." She tried to smile, but failed miserably.

At the airport they ran through customs and shoved their tickets at the attendants.

"Ahh, going to Jacksonville I see. How nice. Get some colour into that lovely skin of yours" Said the man behind the desk as he studied Bella's ticket for a little longer than he should have needed to. "May I just say-". He stopped talking abruptly when he saw Edwards's expression.

"Right, well. On you get, enjoy your vacation." He stammered as Bella and Edward shoved through the door.

"You're sure about this now?" Edward asked as they jogged.

Bella stared at him with raised eyebrows.

"What I mean is that it's going to be difficult. You'll have to explain-"

"Edward, I have to do this. I have to say goodbye to my mother."


	3. Chapter 3

_This chapter might contain some upseting images and descriptions. Be warned, I would hate to offend._

_Ok...Time ot get the tissues I think. For me anyway haha._

_Please let me know what you think!_

The sound of Bella's heels made a hell of a lot of noise on the linoleum floor of the hospital. She would regret wearing such noisy shoes or tried to act a little more like the graceful vampire she really was, if it wasn't for the fact that she was overwhelmed by everything that was going on. She hadn't felt this...vulnerable in years. This...human.

It might have been because if the shining sun that was flooding the wards and rooms, forcing her to hide under the large black hoodie, or it might have been the fear that was choking her, but she suddenly felt like the old Bella, the weak, lost, human Bella that she'd left behind along with her mortality.

She started to wonder if she'd been wrong to let Edward come along. As they arrived in the hotel, it seemed like the right thing to do. She'd be strong for her mother. Give her frail, dying mother the least she could, she would spend time with her, honest, true and familiar. Alone. Thoughs she raced down the corridors she started to doubt that she could do this without Edward...That she could do this at all...

She had known that this day will come. Now that it had...she was terrified.

Clunk, Clunk, Clunk...every step she took brought her closer to the inevitable sight of her dying mother, to the heartbreak her still heart was sure to suffer.

She had never noticed how loud hospitals were. In the past thirty years she had worked, volunteered and visited Carlisle and other members of her family that were practising their doctorate skills at various hospitals across the countries they'd lived in. How had she missed the way the beeping of the machines, the talking of patients and patients and hospital workers and the rolling of food carts flooded her eardrums until she felt that her head might explode?

She knew exactly why.

She had never concentrated on such insignificant things...not until she was forced to as a way of trying to cope with what she was doing.

Would her mother even recognize her? Maybe not, after all, she must imagine that her daughter would be an older woman by now, middle aged. Did she even know if she was alive? Charlie had told them of the police enquiry. It had been impossible to carry on talking to her mother, ignoring the invitations over, telling her how amazing the collage was. Lying. So when they had to move from forks...they'd moved far away. Out of contact.

Would her mother ever forgive her? Would she understand? How much would Bella have to explain?

Time to find out.

"Excuse me?" She said quietly to the male nurse by the nurse's station. "A lady down stairs told me that my mother was on this floor. Could you tell me what room please?"

The man's heartbeat had risen, as was the usual when they met Bella, she'd come to realise.

"Ym, h-her nname please?" he spluttered, looking down.

"Renee."

"Right at the end of the hall." He said, still not looking up. Bella headed straight for the door as she listened to his heartbeat calm a little, though his breath became more heavly once he thought she could no longer hear.

She reached the door far too quickly.

She knocked.

No answer.

She knocked again.

Again, no answer.

She pushed the door open...and gasped.

Her mother was lying on the bed, her wrinkled face pale and translucent. Like paper. Bella gulped before stepping into the room. Her mother didn't stir, her heavily lidded eyes didn't twitch. She was motionless.

The door swung shut after her and a body in the chair by the bed nudged upright. Bella hadn't even noticed him. Phil was sitting by her mother. He looked old too, older than usual perhaps due to the stress of my mother's illness. He'd lost most of his hair by now, and there was a significant amount of fat around the belly area that hadn't been there on the day of Bella's wedding which was the last time she'd seen him. The hair he had left was silvery, as was the stubble that lined his chin. He peered at her through the darkness of the room, the lines around his face became emphasised.

Then his eyes widened.

He sat staring at Bella as she stared down at her mother. Her mother looked so different. The thick hair had now shrivelled to short and thin and the laugh lines she had when she was young were deep set around her mouth.

After a few moments, Phil got himself together.

"Bella?"

Bella looked at him. The look in her golden eyes was enough confirmation to him.

He stared some more.

"Phil..." Bella began. His mouth opened and closed again. "Can you give me and my mother a minute?" She said.

Phil sat in silence for a few moments. Then he got up and limped to the door, closing it quietly behind him.

Bella turned to her mother and carefully touched her hair. She stroked her mother's frail silvery hair and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Renee's eyes fluttered open. "Phil?" She asked, her frail hands moving slowly around the covers, searching for his hands. Bella caught her hand in one of hers and looked her mother in the eyes for the first time since her wedding day. Renee's eyes fluttered once more before widening to fully circular orbs as she took in her daughter's face.

"Bella?"

_The next chapter sohuld be up veeery soon so keep a looke out. Hope you enjoyed it and LET ME KNOW!_

x


	4. Chapter 4

_I found this upsetting to write, so you might find it upsetting to read. Consider yourselves warned :p  
Please Review xxx_

Bella didn't move. She just stared into her mother's eyes, which stared right back at her, alert.

After a long while of nothing, no sound, or movement other than her mother's quick, shallow breathing, Bella spoke.

'Mom,' She whispered her mouth barely moving. Renee's mouth pulled up in the corners in response to Bella's beautiful voice, despite the strain it carried heavily. Renee lifted her arms, weak as they were, to Bella's face, stroking her cold, hard cheek. She didn't flinch from the cold. Bella leaned down, relishing in her touch, leaning into it, and breathing for the first time. The scent was familiar, despite the fact that she'd been helplessly human the last time she'd smelt it.

Renne lifted her arms higher, trying to reach behind Bella's head. Realizing what she was trying to do, Bella pulled her hood down, letting her hair fall out. Renee sighed, her eyes still alert and wide.

'Mom, I'm so sorry.' Bella whispered weakly.

'Shh..' Renee hushed her, barely moving her pale lips.

'I know this must be-' she began again, but Renee moved her hand from her cheek to place a finger lightly on her lips.

'No need'. Was all her mother said.

Could she not see her clearly? Could she not feel the cold of her skin, or see the changes in her features? Did she not notice that her daughter in front of her was 25 years younger than she should be? Was it the medication? These worries filled Bella's mind. She'd been so preoccupied with worrying that she'd be too late, or that her mother would react badly, she hadn't thought that she'd miss out on a real goodbye. Could this merely be a dream or a hallucination for her mother?

'You're here,' Renee managed to get out. Human ears wouldn't have been able to hear, but Bella heard not only the whispered words, but the happiness to her mother's tone. Her face, content, still held on to the weak smile, showed no sign of incomprehension. 'That's what matters.' She didn't care what her daughter looked like. She didn't care that she'd stayed away, out of contact, all these years. She was here. Finally.

Bella couldn't find her voice. She just held her pose, her mother's hand quivering a little as it fought to keep in contact with her daughter's face. Bella caught her wrist just before her hand touched the pillow as her hand dropped from her face.

Bella didn't move.


End file.
